Acceptance Where It Matters
by The Wind God
Summary: Konoha civilians hated him, but it didn't really matter if he had the right people on his side. One-shot. A/U.


Disclaimer: I almost forgot this. Don't own Naruto. Wouldn't want to except to make loads of money. I think Kishimoto is doing a pretty good job despite what others think right now.

A/N: This is just a strange idea that hit me randomly. I thought I would just write it down and put it up for others to see. This will just be a one-shot, but I might be writing a story with some other ideas. We'll see. Enjoy. R&R please, just to let me know how it was.

Acceptance Where It Matters

Seven year old Uzumaki Naruto was running through the streets of Konoha, pushing his legs to the limit as he tried to escape his pursuers. He was getting quite desperate to find safety, because at this point, the crowd was getting drunker and more violent. When the chase had started just under an hour ago, it had been a few people waving fists and threatening him. With only a couple reprieves in that entire time, he was tiring out fast. The group had slowly but surely gathered numbers and collected every drunken heathen that was out on the street celebrating the Yondaime's triumph.

Today was the anniversary of the Kyuubi attack, October 10th, and Naruto's birthday. It was his least favorite day of the year. Yeah, sure, the citizens of Konohagakure being stupid ignorant fools were always looking for a chance to hurt or degrade the young Jinchuuriki, but on this day they acted like Kami had come down from Heaven and given them immunity from all crime and hateful activities.

"DIE you fucking DEMON!! You're the sorriest waste of space I've ever seen you little MONSTER!" said one man with a bat in one hand and an empty bottle in the other. If you could smell the man's breath, it would be apparent where the contents of that bottle had gone.

"You little BASTARD! You killed my husband. I'll fucking destroy you!..." another woman slurred out, holding a large kitchen knife that she had hidden in her purse upon leaving her house.

Naruto had wanted to stay home today after getting back from the Academy having learned early on that he would only be attacked, but someone, most likely his landlord, had plundered his apartment of all of its food which forced him to go out to the store. He was only able to afford it because he had reported it to the Hokage who had given him some money, and sent an ANBU with him to make sure he was treated fairly. He remembered clearly the unhappy look that the grocer had given him upon seeing his escort, but the man had smartly held his tongue so as not to provoke the silent guard. Only an idiot would do that.

-He had been about five minutes from his house when a party of seven had come stumbling out of the festival and had noticed him. This immediately stoked the fire in their hearts. Not the fire they speak of when telling of the Will of Fire. No, more like the fire that burns the souls of the damned. The type of all consuming flame that leaves no discernable difference between them and a true demon like the Kyuubi itself.

-They had started yelling obscenities and chasing him. When he saw them he had dropped his groceries in shock and stood completely motionless. His ANBU guard had gotten him going again by yelling, "Naruto, Run! Get to the safety zone. You know where to go." Naruto, shaken from his frozen stance nodded once and took off. The crowd totally ignored the black clad ninja and chased the whisker-faced boy.

-Hawk could have annihilated the crowd by himself, but he of course had his reasons not to. Unknown to Naruto, the shinobi sighed to himself as he gathered the bags from the ground and turned in the direction of Naruto's apartment so that the food would not go forgotten. He looked to the rooftops and signaled his back-up guard that it was their turn.

Five minutes of running through the streets had allowed an additional thirty to forty people join the chase, none of them shinobi, and for good reason. But this fact alone allowed Naruto to stay away from them long enough to do what needed to be done.

Naruto stumbled slightly on a rock in the road which snapped him out of his reverie. He turned left into an alley which was narrower, and gave him a chance to put a little bit of distance between himself and his pursuers. The large crowd was struggling to fit all their numbers into the alley, while some at the back decided to break off and try to intercept him when he came out of the back streets.

After he had been given the chance to calm down a bit during his run, he remembered back to the other times this had happened and how it had ended each of those times. Really, the only reason he had been surprised earlier was not because he was being attacked, but because he had thought the route he was using would avoid the festival all together. They had apparently changed the rout at the last minute. Sure, he would be stronger than them in the future, but right now he was only seven.

While all of this was going on, four of Naruto's normal guard were standing on the roof nearby and watching him run. '_Just a bit further, Naruto. Don't give up. You're almost there.' _They would have loved to intercept the group and dish out some punishment, but there was a plan in motion tonight, and they knew better to ignore their commands. So, instead of attacking the main group chasing the young blond boy, two of the secret guard headed toward the group of attackers that had broken off from the back.

This cluster was significantly smaller than the other, which made it easier for them to grab a couple from the back.

The victims of this abduction started to scream out in fear and anger, but were silenced and the two ANBU shunshined to Headquarters to drop the folks off for a meeting with Ibiki and his newest bloodthirsty apprentice, Anko. They would learn why it was a bad idea to break the Third's Law and attack his favorite charge, outside of his own family of course. The others stopped to look back for a second, thinking they had heard something, but being inebriated, were not completely aware of what was going on and just continued.

*******************

The Hokage sat in his office watching his chrystal ball with a look of severe anger shining in his eyes. To see the people he worked so hard to protect disrespect him so blatantly pissed him off. Sure, they weren't attacking him personally, but he had told them on that fateful night to treat the boy as a hero and never to mention what he had within him, and they showed how they felt about that by trying to kill the boy.

He looked up to see his most important ANBU watching him, waiting patiently to be acknowledged. He lit his pipe and took a puff before speaking.

"Weasel, did you inform them of the plan for tonight?" he asked, wanting to make sure that this would be flawless, for if it wasn't done properly and in the right place by the right people, he would get a lot of grief. Nothing he couldn't handle, but at his age, less stress was better.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. They are all in place and are now just waiting for their opportunity." He was wearing a mask, but had it been removed, the smirk that adorned his face would have chilled even the Old Man to the bones.

"Excellent. Join them, and when everything is complete, come back and see me. We have much more to discuss." With that he waved his dismissal of the ANBU and watched as he puffed away with a shunshin.

**********************

Naruto rounded the final corner of his journey about five minutes later and entered through a pair of open wrought iron gates.

In their drunken stupor and blind rage, all but a very small few were aware of where they were now and those few were so caught up in the excitement of the hunt that they wouldn't have cared if they had just entered Iwa territory.

Hostile territory.

They saw the young boy approaching a high and solid wall and he slowed down, and eventually stopped in front of it. He turned the crowd with a fearful face.

The hunters had their prey cornered and seeing the fearful face, started laughing and yelling, taunting him and taking out knives in preparation of their final attack.

At this point something happened that they didn't expect. The demon brat's got a giant shit-eating grin on his face and took two large steps back. That's when it happened.

He disappeared.

Right through the wall.

They all started wondering what the hell was happening and were chattering loudly when they seemed to become aware of the multiple extra presences that surrounded them. Suddenly the wall disappeared and standing there was Naruto, right next to a Weasel masked ANBU. This was not looking good. They had heard stories from others about what happened if they were caught by the elite ninja, but had disregarded it in their frenzy.

All around them were ninja that were dressed in black and had weapons of all sorts, ranging from swords and katanas, to wakizashis, to simple kunai and shuriken. That, however, is not what struck fear into their hearts. It was the eyes.

They were a glowing Scarlet red.

They were in Uchiha territory.

They were fucked.

Weasel spoke with a chilling voice that had many of the civilians pissing their pants. "For blantant disregard of the Third's Law and foolishly breaking it with no concern for authority, and trespassing onto Uchiha land without permission during curfew hours with the intent to cause harm to one that is given sanctuary here… your sentence is death." He gave a nod and as one the ninjas from Konoha's most elite clan flashed through hand signs faster than eyes, aside from those with the Sharingan of course, could see. A solitary shout rang out in the street as numerous clan members watched what was unfolding in the wide street from their homes.

"**KATON: GOUKAKYU NO JUTSU!" **

The fire ball that surrounded the crowd created light that could be seen from the Hokage tower itself. Itachi's was so hot it actually burned blue. Naruto had to take a couple of steps back to lessen the intensity of heat he felt coming off of the impromptu barbeque.

When it was over, nothing remained but a giant pile of ashes.

Itachi spoke then. "Are you okay, Naruto-san? They didn't hurt you did they?" None of the Uchiha wanted to see the precious Jinchuuriki hurt.

The little blond shook his head. "No, they didn't get me. I'm fine. Thank you all so much for helping me. If I didn't have somewhere to run to, they would have caught me eventually and I don't want to think about what would have happened then." He just slowly shook his head, knowing the cruelty of filth like these people had been.

"It's not a problem. My family should be getting ready for dinner. Let me escort you there so that you can join them. I must report to the Hokage, but I will join you later. Sound good?" Itachi asked.

"YEAH!! I get to eat and I get to hang out with Sasuke. Plus I get to eat ! Awesome!" Naruto yelled. He liked Itachi's family. Said dark haired teen just chuckled and led the way.

Sarutobi watched the scene from his office, through the Chrystal ball and smiled. He was happy that his young charge had been accepted by such a powerful and important group in Konoha.

He then switched his thoughts back to the smoldering pile of ash in the street that would need to be taken care of, but could find little sympathy in his heart for any of those damn fools. They got no more than they deserved, and if he was honest, he believed the got quite a bit _less_ than they should have.

He was now just waiting for Itachi's report. His eyes traveled to the ever tall pile of paperwork that would seemingly follow him to his death bed, whenever that day might come. What he really needed was something that would look like him, act like him and keep the memories of all the information on the paperwork so that he would have it later. Something like a Shadow clo….

His brain came to a screeching halt and he just sat there, totally frozen for thirty seconds, before his brain rebooted and allowed him to process what had just happened.

For someone called The Professor, there had only been a handful of times in his long life where he felt truly stupid.

This one topped the list.

Then the anger kicked in and he started throwing things. Not important stuff, just little knick knacks that could be easily replaced.

"DAMNIT!! So many years wasted! I could have been staying in shape, or spending time with my family, or reading Icha Icha Paradise, or helping Jiraiya with his research, or finding ways to allow for coed baths or…."

Itachi, who had come to give his report, had heard things crashing around and went in to make sure the Hokage was okay, but instead got an earful about the Old man's perverted thinking.

Sarutobi had heard the door open and had turned to see Itachi.

They both just looked at each other with wide-eyed looks of surprise unsure of what to say. Both however, were completely sure of what to think, and were doing so.

"_Aaaawkwaaaarrd…"_

A/N: Like I said this random idea popped in my head one day. If you'd like to use it, go ahead, but give due credit, don't just steal it and then say I copied it from you. Also, the ending bit is my take on the common Shadow clone for paperwork idea in fanfiction. Hope you enjoyed it. Let me know. Bye.


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